


snake secrets

by leradny



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album)
Genre: Gen, and shoutouts to the abhorsen trilogy, but i do like writing magic, entirely written in lowercase, the killjoys are not MCR because i do not like writing RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 00:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20200792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leradny/pseuds/leradny
Summary: sometimes kobra wonders, what exactly is the secret he's keeping for the phoenix witch? (or, "how kobra kid got his hair shined up")





	snake secrets

one secret about kobra: his hair isn't dyed.

well, it might be. but he didn't do that. he's not even really sure what happened himself.

what he is sure of: before it happened, there was a clap with dracs that got him and jet star away from the others on route guano, and shaking the last of them off his tail got kobra away from jet. once he was safe, finally safe, it was getting dark and he was alone hoping jet and the others were ok.

the heat wouldn't last an hour. so he started walking. he could look for a spot to dig in but he really hoped for a car.

he found one.

this was when he should have started questioning his luck, but he was too tired.

he tried the door and it opened, so after closing the windows he curled up on the floor of the back seat with all his clothes still on. he wished the others were there. even if they would have pissed themselves laughing at how he twisted his lanky arms and legs to fit, at least he'd have a better chance of not freezing. and he wouldn't be alone.

still, he'd survived nights like this before, which was why he didn't panic as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

\- - -

he woke up with moonlight in his eyes, it was a clear sky for once.

the rattle of... something... grated in the quiet of the desert night.

it wasn't a car. it was too small. it wasn't a bike because it rattled along like it was being pushed, not driven. stopped and started like someone walking around, slowly. wandering. every now and then there was a smaller rattle like someone dropping stuff in. what was it? kobra thought it sounded familiar. from his city days.

he crept into a sitting position--his legs were cramped. but even though he was a little chilly he didn't feel in danger yet. dracs didn't announce their presence like that, it must have been a killjoy or another runner. he hoped. he just barely brought his head up past the lower edge of the window. he wouldn't have done that if his hair had been bleached then. it would have shone in the night.

before he could find whatever was rattling, the moon flickered.

it didn't usually do that.

so he looked up--and right away, he almost closed his eyes again. because the moon was a face looking back at him and that really didn't happen a lot.

"look like you can keep a secret," the face said. it had black dots for eyes and black stripes and slits where the mouth should be and he kept thinking, 'mask, it's just a mask (a really scary mask)' except _it was in the fucking sky_ and was he dreaming or not? "i like you, kid."

when he woke up he had a black blanket over him and he was stretched out in the front seat, not the back. the sun was rising. he had an hour, maybe two, before things got too hot.

he didn't think too hard about the dream... or whatever it was. he tossed the blanket in the back seat. popped the hood, checked the tank. the car had just enough juice to get back to where he'd been, and he could manage a walk back to the diner from there. it'd take a couple of hours but definitely doable. so he tried hotwiring the car and breathed a sigh of relief when it sputtered to life.

then he caught a glimpse of himself in the rear view mirror. wiped it clean to make sure it wasn't sand messing up his reflection.

the tips of his hair were bleached like he'd been walking in the sun for days without his helmet on. that was kind of impossible, he thought, pulling one of the strands down over his forehead. yeah, it was definitely bleached.

"why me?" he asked, not knowing if anyone would answer. "party's more..." cacti and rocks sped past. there were lots of things he could say. "party's just... more. more than me," he finished.

"i _said,_" the voice came from the back seat. "you look like you could keep a secret."

he looked over to see the blanket now had a vaguely human form sitting under it. the same mask was on top. beaded necklaces hung around the neck and either feathers or hair stuck up all around it. she sounded like she was smiling. that didn't make him less scared.

"someone else might be more than you, but that doesn't mean you're nothing."

he would have said something, but he just realized this was the phoenix witch. he'd never seen her, and nobody really said what she looked like, but he knew this was who he was talking to. a cart, that was what he heard, a shopping cart like back in the city. but an old rickety one that the stores would have fixed up or thrown out.

the phoenix witch asked him, "does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"

the first one sounded like something party would say. well, shout while standing on top of the trans am. kobra felt more comfortable with the second.

"depends," kobra answered.

"good. just remember--" the witch stretched out her hand--she had claws--and reached all the way past him to tap the gas gauge. she left a scratch on the glass. "there's nothing wrong with either of them, kid."

"thanks...?" he said.

"there we go."

"wait--" the blanket collapsed. kobra yelled, "what am i supposed to--"

"kobes!"

he looked back to the road to see party poison's flaming red hair and bunny's curly brown head standing in front of the diner.

"bunny, it's kobes!"

the car sputtered to a stop. he threw open the door and ran, party poison and bunny barrelling towards him. bunny made it first and threw her arms around kobra's waist, wailing. kobra hugged her back and stroked her hair. it wasn't as easy as it looked. bunny's hair, like jet's, tended to grab your hand and hold on tight. "jet came back without you! we thought you got dusted!"

party got there and threw his arms around both of them. "don't do that ever again, you sick bastard!"

"you can't tell me what to do," kobra said. party punched him. "it was a joke."

"i know, dumbass!" party shouted. "i'm not a dumbass!" it would have sounded better if party hadn't started crying.

and once party did, bunny buried her face in kobra's jacket again. "th-the doc said the dracs got you and everything."

"well, they didn't and i'm back now."

when jet and ghoul came back with the trans am they gave kobra another round of hugs and tears and yelling at him for making them think he was dead. then they all piled into the diner for some real sleep. no one noticed his hair. even kobra forgot about it for a while.

\- - -

it was past noon before jet finally looked at him straight and said, "dude, your hair. when'd you bleach it?"

he didn't know what to say because the phoenix witch said he looked like he could keep a secret. but he also didn't like lying to his crew. so he shrugged.

"well, it's shiny and if you like it that's all that matters." jet thumped him on the back and went out to look at the new car, which they named the kobra kar but after finding numerous problems were starting to call it "that piece of shit" (fondly). it was their backup car, and even a genuine piece of shit backup car was better than none.

\- - -

a couple hours later, kobra noticed bunny was being suspiciously quiet and looked everywhere until he found her sitting on a table with what was clearly a bomb and ghoul in front of it clearly teaching her how to make one. one of the few rules they had was "no teaching dust bunny how to make bombs until she's at least twelve, FUN GHOUL."

bunny and ghoul tried to distract him by telling him his new hair looked so shiny that they liked it better than party's.

"thanks, but i'm still taking you out of here because you're not twelve yet." since bunny was on the table he tossed her over his shoulder, to much whining from both the girl and the ghoul.

\- - -

party took like three days to realize kobra's hair was different.

to be fair, every time they met party latched on to kobra so hard they both stumbled around for a few steps before he finally let go.

\- - -

sometimes kobra wonders, exactly what _is_ the secret he's keeping for the phoenix witch? that she exists? that he's met her? that she bleached his hair and made a car running on fumes take him all the way home when it really shouldn't have?

in the dark, when he can't sleep, and his beating heart drowns out the sound of his crew's breathing around him and any comfort he might have taken from it, he wonders if he _did_ die in that clap with the dracs--or later, on the floor of the car in that freezing desert night.

he tries not to wonder too much.


End file.
